Bless Me, Ultima --by Rudolfo Anaya

Fiction / Coming of age / Magical Realism

276 pages / 1161 KB

5 Stars

Having recently moved to Albuquerque NM, and searching for books by local authors, I came across Bless Me, Ultima. Oh, what a warm and marvelous welcome to my new home!

Knowledge of some Spanish would be helpful, but not necessary, though the next time I read the book (oh, believe me, there will be a next time!) I will take the time to look up the words I couldn't figure out.

When Antonio is 6, the curandera who delivered him comes to live with his family. She has a special fondness for Antonio and takes him with her when she goes out to gather her herbs and medicines. She teaches him the proper way to harvest them, to talk to the plants, explain why he is taking a part of them.

His mother is a Luna, her people till the land; his father is a Marez, his people were free to ride the plains. Mama wants Antonio to become a Priest; Papa wants him to become a man of freedom. Antonio struggles to become Antonio.

I think this is one of, if not the, best coming of age I've read. I highly recommend the book. The writing is marvelous, the story compelling. An insight into a culture in the process of changing. 

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett –by Chelsea Sedoti

AVAILABLE 3 JANUARY 2017

Fiction / Teen & Young Adult

400 pages

5 Stars

Legalities: I received a free copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

O. M. G. This was a one-sit read. It's been more than a few years since I've been a senior in high school, and I had forgotten all the teen angst over being, well, a teen in high school. This book brought all those marvelous memories back and then some.

Hawthorn Creely is our heroine, and also our narrator. Her voice, as she tells her story, is both funny and when necessary, poignant. I laughed out loud in places, and yes, shed a tear or two.

When Lizzie Lovett, a beautiful and popular girl goes missing, Hawthorn comes up with her own theories, as outrageous and oddball as they may seem. Never one of the "in" crowd at school, she finds herself ridiculed and teased even more once her ideas become fodder for the school gossip machine. Amazingly, Lizzie's boyfriend is one of Hawthorn's staunchest defenders.

Yes, this is a coming-of-age book, and one of the most engrossing ones I've read in a long time. Hawthorn is believable, her family is believable (if I didn't know better, I'd swear they were my neighbors!), and her teachers, were produced by the same teacher cookie cutter as were mine. 

The saddest thing about The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett is it won't be released until after the Winter Gifting Season is over. This book would make a fantastic Winter Gift not just for any teens on your list, but for any of your friends who may have, at one time or another, been a teen.

Walk Me Home - but get some decent shoes first!

Walk Me Home –by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fiction, Coming of Age

374 pages / 479 KB

5 Stars

Walk Me Home is a well-written and captivating story of two young girls – Carly, 16 and Jen, 11 – who find themselves orphaned in New Mexico and fear the authorities will separate them, so they take off on their own.

Carly wants to go back to Tulare, CA where her mother's ex-boyfriend, Teddy, is thought of as a step-father, and she knows he will want them, take them in, and keep them safe. What she doesn't know, or rather chooses to not believe, is that Teddy tried to molest Jen the night her mother kicked him out and took the girls to live with her new boyfriend, who died with her mother.

The girls manage to walk into Arizona, and end up at the dead end of a road in the middle of nowhere on the Wakapi Indian Reservation. Tired, thirsty, and afraid of everyone, they lay in wait to break into the hen house of an old Indian woman who lives alone out in the middle of this nowhere. She catches them, and makes them stay for a week to work off the damage they caused.

Carly with the Chip on her Shoulder finally decides to leave Jen, who doesn't want to go any farther, and sets out to find Teddy on her own. By the time she does, she's done a remarkable amount of growing up, and recognizing some things about her – and Teddy, and her sister, Jen, who is now living someplace in Arizona on an Indian Reservation.

I could not put this book down until I finished it. I had to know how it would end. It was truly worth the late 'light out' to get there, too.

I think most adults would enjoy this story, even though it is intended for Young Adults. Then, again, maybe I don't fit in the category of 'most adults'?

Thank you, Ms. Hyde, for a great read, and a remarkable story. Not to mention an ending that brought smiles to my face.

Take a Trip Through Time and Africa

 

Belonging in Africa – by Jo Alkemade

Fiction

288 pages

footnotes/endnotes: No

Illustrations: No

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

Disclaimer: I am a friend of Jo's, so my review might be just a tad biased, but don't let that stop you from buying and reading this great book!

Sara, the protagonist of the novel, is a Dutch girl coming of age in Nairobi, Kenya in the 1970s. She has lived all over the world, as her father's job moved, but Kenya, Africa, is where she feels she belongs. Her overbearing parents want her to return to their native country, Holland, to be near her aunties and attend secretarial school. She wants to remain in Kenya.

She meets, and falls in love with Sam, a traditional African man, who is from Uganda. His father is imprisoned there, and Sam, as the first son of the first wife, is 'man of the family.' Sam has been accepted at university in London, and wants Sara to accompany him, and when their schooling is over, they will return to Kenya. However, he must first return to his family and make sure everything is in order before travelling so far.

This is Sara's dream come true. Until Fate steps in. While Sam is in Uganda, she receives a phone call that changes her life. Ignoring her father's demand she remain home, she journeys to the village of Sam's birth a young and naive girl. She returns to her home a few days later, a young woman of resolution.

Reading this book is like taking a trip through time to 1978 and a safari through parts of Africa where Jo has lived, but I have only dreamed. Jo tells a great story – I laughed, I cried, and I loved this book.

Marcelo in the Real World --by Francisco X. Stork

Fiction, Young Adult

312 pages

Footnotes/Endnotes: None

Illustrations: None

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

This prize winning book is one Rainy Day would not have picked up without prodding, more's the shame. Rainy Day tends not to read a lot of YA novels, because she writes YA novels, and while many who write them, read them, Rainy Day is one who normally avoids fiction in her genre, as many authors do.

However, Rainy Day signed up for a class in March, and one of the homework assignments was to read Marcelo in the Real World, and Rainy Day is very glad she did at least that much of her homework (the rest of the homework will come).

The story takes place between Marcelo's Junior and Senior years in high school. He is a high functioning Asperger's, and has spent his school years in a protected school, and now his father, a partner in a law firm, wants Marcelo to come into the real world. Marcelo must deal with giving up his coveted summer job at Patterson School where he would work with the horses and go to work in his father's law firm, working in the mailroom. His father promises that if he does well, he may return to Patterson for his senior year, otherwise, he must attend the local public high school.

Rainy Day knows a little about high functioning Asperger's – very little. She has known a few such people in her life, and she opened this book with some trepidation. So many of the YA novels Rainy Day has read in the past have such downer endings (another reason she doesn't read them), she really did not want to invest time, or emotion, in Marcelo only to have it end as a downer. Rainy Day was pleasantly surprised when she finished the book. Very pleasantly surprised.

This is an engrossing story of a young man coming of age in the real world. In an unsentimental way, Marcelo learns about jealousy, competition, anger, and honor. Rainy Day enjoyed this book tremendously, and recommends it to anyone, young or not, who wants to read a good story, and just might learn a bit about how people who are different, not less, think and act.

Bravo and Kudo's to Francisco X. Stork.

For information on high functioning autism, click here to read about Dr. Temple Grandin